Pomona College Opens a Structure for Contemplating the Sky

James Turrell (left) during the opening of his Pomona College skyspace (Pomona College photo)

James Turrell has made an unusual career for himself: He designs structures that let users contemplate the sky.

The structures, which he calls skyspaces, typically consist of a seating area and a modest opening in the roof — an oculus — through which the only sky is visible. Buildings, trees, cell-phone towers, billboards, and traffic lights are hidden from the viewer’s sight, along with everything else that clutters the horizon and blurs the boundary between earth and the vastness beyond.

Mr. Turrell’s latest skyspace opened last weekend at his alma mater, Pomona College. Titled Dividing the Light, the structure was installed in a courtyard in a complex of buildings housing the college’s psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics and cognitive-science programs. A square oculus is in the middle of a stainless-steel canopy erected in the courtyard; a stone pool beneath it reflects the sky’s bright blue during the day and its inky darkness at night, according to Architect magazine.

Among other skyspaces is one at the University of Illinois at Chicago.